I think that this quote by Dave Camp, House Ways and Means Chair, helps illustrate the exact nature of Obama’s fairly disastrous gaffe Wednesday: “But then I thought, maybe if I can’t figure out who to call, they need to call me,” he said. “It’s their agenda they need to get through the House.” Background: as my readers probably remember, Camp, House Budget Chair Paul | Read More »

(By the way: if you want to contest the idea that Loretta Sanchez is a known racist, I suggest that you take it up with former Congressional Republican candidate Van Tran. The race-baiting in that campaign reached the point where Sanchez was openly declaring that the Vietnamese were trying to steal the seat from ‘our community,’ which was almost as ironic as it was racist.) | Read More »

UPDATE: Paul Ryan’s done, too. Jake Tapper titled the post where he compares President’s Obama rhetoric in 2010 (semantic translation: “I don’t have the testicles to be rude to Republicans at their own retreat.”) to his rhetoric today (I can’t improve on Tapper’s title) “Throw Grandma From the Train.” Apparently, being forced to abandon his happy-shiny 2011 budget has made the President… well, Obama was | Read More »

We talked this afternoon on South Carolina’s Spending Accountability Act (which was formally signed into law today). To refresh people’s memories: Governor Haley had campaigned in part on a platform of transparency, with a specific focus on the South Carolinian legislature’s ability to vote on funding issues without their votes actually going on the record. The Governor has long been a proponent of reversing this, | Read More »

A lot of people are going to concentrate on the US House maps. If you compare the old one: …to the new one: …you can see why: there are four freshmen Republicans in Indiana, and this map directly helps at least three of them (particularly IN-09’s Todd Young, who gave Baron Hill a somewhat surprising upset last year). It also will encourage IN-02’s Joe Donnelly | Read More »

He’s not fully joining the fight against Obamacare – Koster has issued an amicus curiae brief in modified support of the Florida Obamacare lawsuit, instead of joining it – but he’s easily the most prominent Democrat on the state level to break with his party on Obamacare. This is partially probably due to Missouri’s emphatic rejection of Obamacare last year (via Proposition C), and partially | Read More »

There are two very simple questions that need to be asked over the next eighteen months. The first is, Are you better off than you were four years ago? If the answer is “Yes,” the second question is even more blunt: Really? How are you managing that? March ’07 March ’11 Unemployment Rate 4.40% 8.80% Gas price (per gallon) $2.56 $3.60 National Debt 8.84 trillion | Read More »

This is a preemptive post: the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board and the DA’s office for Milwaukee County is will be having a joint press conference Monday afternoon at 2 PM local time about a “significant investigation.” Given that the DA for Milwaukee County is a Democrat – and given that the election results for Milwaukee County have not yet been certified – there has already | Read More »

At least, for him to lose it at this point will be actually be a bit of a surprise. The numbers don’t seem to be there for his opponent. First, let’s look at the total votes cast in Milwaukee and Outagamie counties (the two remaining to be canvassed), as of right now. Prosser’s current vote margin: 7,310. Milwaukee % Outagamie % Combined % Prosser 98,933 | Read More »

Teachers’ unions, racists, Dick Durbin hardest hit: The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program — which provides low-income District students with federal money to attend private schools — is a top priority of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). The program was closed to new entrants by Democrats in 2009, but Boehner has sought to revive and expand the program. The House passed a Boehner-authored bill last month — | Read More »

…yeah, you know what’s in it already, don’t you? That “People’s” bit is what we call a tell: a promise of big, honking wholesale confiscation of Other People’s (Not Really The Real People) Money. And lo! – this is precisely what the Congressional Progressive Caucus wants to do: Increase payroll taxes. Both sides. Reintroduce the tax hikes on small businesses that were threatened last year. | Read More »

Gov. Kasich is, of course, one of the freshmen Republican governors that took over large swathes of the Midwest last election cycle. We discussed both union reform (in the form of SB 5) and the upcoming budget battle – including about why both are so necessary for Ohio. The Midwest is probably the most interesting region of the country right now, from a political science | Read More »

Gallup mentions the most obvious point – the President has slipped from his historical approval rating among African-Americans (usually around 92%) all the way down to 85%* – but it kind of obscures a detail on the graph with regard to Hispanic voters. They acknowledge that the President is currently at a low with 54% of those voters, but Gallup does not point out that | Read More »

…for the trivial issue of trying to avoid a government shutdown this Friday. Unfortunately, it was only three minutes; nothing was accomplished in that time period, which means that we’re still on track for said government shutdown by the Democrats. And there probably won’t be any more meaningful negotiations today, mostly because President Obama has dinner plans tonight. Dinner plans involving Al Sharpton – because | Read More »